trans_9 | In Which Alex Wa s Foolish [Closed, bendytimed before Marriage Planet like whoa.]

Alex shook his head, bewildered. "N-not a thing. I-it's j-just what I a-always d-did..."

"Well then, I guess you've learned something today," the book said smugly. Proof that training with the Overlord always paid off!

"Now, the only thing that's gonna get you anywhere is practice. Lots of it. If losing control is your problem, and it's in your head, then confidence and self-knowledge is the only way you're gonna break that."

Alex laughed with a surprising amount of bitterness, "r-right, me, confidence. Zetta, think about that f-for a sec-cond. I c-can't even get m-my words out c-confidently. A-and you expect me t-to have c-confidence with a-an ability that c-can steal my will."

He at least seemed confident that he wouldn't ever have confidence.

"Yeah," Zetta said.

He looked left, then right, then his minion inched him in closer to Alex.

"I'm gonna tell you a secret."

Alex pressed his lips together and kept the shield up, still visible, a little worried. "A-a s-secret?"

"Yeah. I don't know if anyone's told you it before," Zetta said. He cleared his throat portentously.

"It's okay to fail sometimes."

Alex's jaw dropped and he narrowed his eyes. His shadow completely dissolved around him as confusion took over.

"W-who are you a-and wh-what have you d-done with Zetta?"

"What? You think I won every battle on the way to the top?" Zetta rolled his eyes. "I wasn't born the strongest Overlord in the cosmos. I worked for it! And there was always someone stronger than me, till I finally BECAME the strongest one! You think I teach my apprentices that they HAVE to succeed, or I'll kick them out on their asses? Hell no!"

"A-actually, m-maybe n-not k-kicked out, b-but sorta.

"I f-figured that y-you'd b-be pretty h-hard on a-any sorta f-failure. A-at least s-some screaming. M-maybe get a m-minion t-to smack m-me, or s-something... A n-near m-missing Zetta Beam..." That's how his father treated failure. Zuko... Well, even though they hadn't trained much yet, he was scary enough without raising his voice much. It was odd to not have it come from Zetta.

"Look, my apprentices are great, but they both can be idiots sometimes," Zetta said matter-of-factly. "I've put them up against some pretty strong stuff, though. I expect them to fail sometimes. Hell, I expect them to fail more than they do, which just says something about the quality of my apprentices!" The book took a moment to laugh about how awesome he is in general.

"But I'm not talking about just 'training' here, Alex," Zetta said more seriously. "I'm talking about life. There's only one being in the cosmos who isn't allowed to fail any more, and that's ME! Everybody else is weaker, so all anyone else has to do fail is just go up against the magnificent 'I'm the Best' Zetta!

"So yeah. There's always gonna be stuff you screw up at or don't pull off. What ISN'T okay is not giving your damndest to try. So just always do your best, and if you screw up, accept it and overcome it!"

(Zetta is something of a hypocrite, it's true.)

Alex still looked at Zetta in surprise. "S-so... Y-you're n-not even g-going ta c-call me a d-dumb ass, or helplessly w-weak, or anything l-like that?"

He liked this philosophy, but it still seemed such a strange idea to him. Mikel being kind was one thing, but Zetta? Mikel had the excuse of being his close friend, rather than a teacher or anything like that.

"B-because, I've a-always t-tried to d-do the b-best I c-can, and it n-never s-seems enough!"

"Eh, if you deserve it, maybe the dumbass thing," Zetta said. "But I don't get off my ass to train people I consider helplessly weak. That's something you laugh at people with. People who're helplessly weak aren't even worth squashing!"

Chalk it up to Zetta's ego, in the end. Because he's an evil demon, not a nice guy, damn it.

"And that's exactly the kind of attitude that screws you over," he continued with a sharp glare. "There's only one person who can decide what's enough, and that's you. The FIRST thing you need to do is learn to be smart about that. Even if you don't succeed, if you did your damndest, then you gotta have the guts to say, 'hey, this was too much for me'. Then work on getting stronger and better so the next time your best IS enough. It's when you blow something that SHOULD have been possible because you were screwing around or half-assing it that you tear yourself a new one and deserve it."

A weak smile spread across Alex's face. While on one level it was a bit unsettling, it was pretty nice that even the Great Demon Overlord Zetta would treat him better than his father did. He nodded in confirmation, "W-well, th-then, i-if practice's all th-that'll g-get me a-any better, th-then I sh-should start, r-right? Wh-where should I s-start?"

"How good are you at holding that shield up under fire?" Zetta asked. It seemed to be the most useful of Alex's talents, but what good was it if he started getting nervous and wavering under serious fire, after all?

"N-no idea. P-probably n-not very..."

Remembering Zetta's speech he hastily added, "b-but I c-can try! I-I was a-always the o-one in the g-get-away v-van, with all the t-tech. I d-didn't e-end up in th-the danger a-area often, s-so I d-didn't have th-that much use f-for my powers..."

"Okay, so step one is to put you in the danger area. We'll start slow and work up gradually."

A few minions crashed to the ground -- along with a castle and a warehouse.

Alex swallowed hard, biting his lip. He put his shield back up, shaking a little. This time, he drew on the pain he felt from missing Mikel and Loretta. It hurt more than he thought it would to dwell on their times together, but he just bit his lip a bit harder and nodded to Zetta.

Step one! A merchant-minion stepped forward, snapped a pair of nunchucks around her body a couple of times demonstratively, then began wailing on the shield. Frankly, it wasn't a terribly fearsome assault.

Alex flinched away at each impact to the shield, but managed to hold it up to the assault. He worked on keeping his breath controlled, trying to prevent a panic attack. At the same time, he was trying to dwell on all the thing he missed about his friends. Tears pressed at the back of his eyes, but he didn't let himself cry over it. If he did, then it would be more likely that the shadow would take him over.

The next level: another minion stepped forward, this one a saberkitty with a katana at its side. It drew the blade in an iado strike, then joined the merchant in delivering blows to the shield.

He was growing accustomed to the beating of one of the minions when the second one started. He jumped at the new clashing against his shield. It was all coming so close, striking so hard He was growing accustomed to the beating of one of the minions when the second one started. He jumped at the new clashing against his shield. It was all coming so close to him, he couldn't help but to expect the strikes to hit him, even with the shield up.

If Mikel had been here, he would have no trouble with staying strong. Mikel had always been strong and shown him how to be strong. He just wished that he could ask Mikel for help. How many times had he thought, 'If only Mikel was here'?

Zetta watched for a moment. Then, without any apparent signal from him, a mage in the back row stepped slightly forward as she began reading from an overside book. Lightning crackled forth from it to add its own pressure to the shield.

The strike of lightning against his shield made him cower, but he managed to hold true. If Loretta could see Zetta, could see all the other characters from all these modes of fiction, she would be so thrilled. She would feel so much more at home here, just the same way that he did. If only she was here to see how much he had grown. She would have grown so much too.

He rubbed a bit at his eyes, trying to keep himself under control, though thinking about his friends made it a lot harder.

"So far all this is weaker than that first Zetta Beam you bounced, Alex," the Overlord said over the cacophony of attacks. "Actually, they all will be."

But even as he spoke, a girl in a lab coat produced a bazooka out of literally nowhere, then fired off a salvo of rockets at the shield in her own turn.

"R-really?" he asked, rather surprised. He was a bit distracted between that and thinking on his missing friends to initially notice the girl in the lab coat, but he cringed at the rocket fire, even as it died against his shield.

"M-Mikel... h-he'd be impressed ta h-hear that!" His voice cracked as he spoke, trying to manage himself. Mikel would be impressed about a lot of recent developments.

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